The Detroit Pistons have made several key moves during the offseason, but the team still missed out on making a major splash during the summer months
Even though the Detroit Pistons amassed their third-most regular season wins as a franchise during the 2025-26 campaign, the team received a fair amount of criticism for their patience back in February at the Trade Deadline. At the time, the Pistons were in first place of the Eastern Conference and were looked at as a squad missing one final piece in order to compete for a title, but Detroit was content with making a three-team trade to send Jaden Ivey to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Kevin Huerter and a first-round pick swap with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
In retrospect, the Pistons could have used another secondary scorer to pair alongside Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren, especially considering how much the latter struggled during the playoffs against the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers. However, Pistons President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon settled on a marginal move while still keeping track of the progress made by Cunningham, Duren and Ausar Thompson when the lightest were brightest in the postseason.
Now two months after their playoff demise, the Pistons are on the receiving end of some more criticism for their passivity during the offseason, which is slightly confounding considering the relative overhaul that has taken place in the Motor City over the last two months. But as always, one big swing is valued much more than three middle-of-the-road moves, so Detroit is in position to accept some criticism for their reluctance to make a home run deal during the summer.
“Banking on internal improvement has been the thought going back from last summer when they didn’t make a big move going into the season,” NBA Senior Writer Vincent Goodwill said. “They wanted to see how Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland would play together. It led to 60 wins. Now you’re thinking Detroit was going to go make a big move this past offseason. Cade Cunningham was very involved in the potential recruitment of Austin Reaves. Austin Reaves re-signed with the Lakers. Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving— those were all names the Pistons were interested in. No moves materialized, and now they’re going to bank on the restricted free agent of Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson’s extension.”
Right now, all three members of the Pistons’ core are younger than 25 years old, so it makes sense for the front office to evaluate what Cunningham, Duren and Thompson could accomplish last year after their success during the regular season. Based on their Eastern Conference Semifinals performance, it has become clear that the trio, though very dynamic, still need one more key scorer to help elevate the team from a challenger to a contender in the postseason.
Goodwill mentioned that Cunningham helped try to convince Reaves to switch conferences for greener pastures in the Motor City, but that move turned out to be fruitless in the long run. The Pistons have stayed active by kicking the tires on a potential deal for Durant, Leonard or Irving, but those overtures did not amount to anything either. So, Detroit is currently in a position where the best move they can make is to re-sign Duren sooner rather than later while continuing to work the phones for a potential deal over the next seven months so that the Pistons are on stronger footing when the playoffs arrive down the line.
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